The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-06-05

Of food they gave US, even if it haC
been served in an appetizing manner
The lunches were not only poor, bu
nasty"
Another, stenographer, said: 81
left because l could not eat the fooC
apd because l had no privacy
There were four girls in one room
and we each paid So a week. That
was bad enough. But the matror
never hesitated to walk in upon vi
at any time without knocking, anC
that was too much. The house il
successful because there are such
shoals of girls coming to town who
don't know where else to CO."
Another, conservatory girl, said
Il left there because | was too ut
terly wretched. There was nothing
l would not have done to get away,
was so desperate. Yet the girls do
manage to get some fun out of it.
There are two large rooms opening
into one another in which eight
girls live. These they call the vii
lage. There is another room SO
long and narrow that they call it
Sarah Bernhardt's coffin. Oh, it
was herdingl That is all one can
call it"
The two houses on North Wash
ington Square are owned by the
Women's Christian Union, and as it
is run, so far from it being any charity,
it ought to afford handsome profit.
As it contains eighty boarders, at an
average of 81 a week, 1920 should
well pay the weekly running ex-
penses, which are brought to the
lowest terms.
There is every reason to believe
that all these houses except the
Primrose House" are self sustaining.
There is no reason why they should
not be and why they should not be
comfortable homes as well for these
homeless students, which they are
not.
HOW NOT TO DO IT..
Such homes are not to be reckoned
among the charities of this city.
They are its courtesies. They offer
to women of wealth and influence
sheltered in their own affluent homes
opportunity for one Of the most gra-
cious womanly services they can rem
der their sex if they would but
take it.
Everything that has been hereto
fore attempted Of this sort has been
by well meaning women, bur from a
different point of view. They have
not realized that women supporting
themselves and who are fitting them
selves for self support, need a GER
tain ease of movement That women
of leisure do not need. But what
they have done for them is so sur
rounded by petty restrictions and
limitations that their good inten-
tions are odious.
CAST IRON RULES FOOLISH AND NOT
NEEDED.
" The difficulty with almost all
undertakings organized and carried
on by women is that no account is
taken of the accidents and emer-
gencies Of life" said lady who is a
keen observer. Their first act is
to establish rules, cast iron rules,
while material comforts receive the
minimum of their attention; that
which they believe is consideration
for the moral we'll being of these
girls receives the maximum,
I" Nothing better illustrates the
stress laid ON money in this city of
commercial prosperity than the ina
bility IN the minds of we'll meaning
people to dissociate a slender purse
and want of rectitude. This is par
ticularly to be observed among wom-
en- who make doing good part of
their daily diversions. The unfor-
tunate consequences are that they
surround their praiseworthy inten-
tons with SO disagreeable an atmos-
phere that high spirited girls escape
from it as soon as possible to the
privacy and cold hall rooms of third
rate boarding houses"
THE GIRLS CAN BE TRUSTED.
What sort of girls are these city
girls?" said one who sees a prima
donna's career before her. l think
they must be very badly raised-she
said raised, coming from Tennessee
for there people think girls need
so much Watching"
At home, mother trusts me to 70
anywhere" chimed in her roommate
from the Cooper, and with any fell
low-she said fellow for she came
from Illinois-that she would let
come to the house."
VI don't know anybody but Cousin
Frank, who is clerking in a retail
house here. The truth is, we have
to work too hard to wish to 20 out
often at night. Every day l stay in
New York I'm accommodating a debt
that has to be sung out of existence,
SO | haven't much time to play. But
it makes me mad to feel that l can't
be trusted"
The fact is that these young wo-
men for the most part are from those
pure, we'll ordered homes that
throughout the length and breadth
VI On6 COuuuy are lCb nope anu
mainstay. They bring with them to
the city the best of all safeguards-a
purpose, one for which they are pre-
pared to make sacrifices. These are
not the women in need of odious re-
strictions and espionage. If they
were they would not crowd these
cherries, comfortless homes. That
they do is evidence presumptive that
they expect to live upright, respect
able lives.
There is urgent need of homes
where such women can live consist
ent with self respect.
why the SOath Failed.
From the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle,
February 18th: Gen. Longstreet will
to his dying day insist periodically
that Gen. Lee lost the battle OF Get
tysburg, and that he could have won
it. Lee was great enough, whether